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He quickly identified that she was showing signs of sepsis - a potentially life-threatening condition that can cause multiple organ failure - and acted fast to make arrangements to get her to hospital.

Berwyn recalled: “I was coming to the end of a 12-hour shift when I was called to Rhian’s home at around 1am.

“There, I was presented with Rhian suffering abdominal pain.

“After asking her about her clinical history, it became apparent that there was more to the story than was first thought, and that she’d recently undergone surgery.

“After further examinations, we came to the conclusion that she was showing signs of sepsis by using an early warning score card adopted through NHS Wales.”

Berwyn Owen-Jones with his kit (Image: North Wales Daily Post)

He added: “I remember she was in quite a lot of pain but we started the ball rolling immediately, giving her all the treatment that we could pre-hospitally, and then asking for the back-up of an ambulance to take her to hospital.”

He added: “It was a shock to hear how bad the illness was and how drastically Rhian deteriorated in such a short space of time.

“The fact that we caught it at the early stage was vital really.

“It was amazing to hear from Rhian afterwards and find out there had been a positive outcome, that she was on the mend and that we’d managed to help her.”

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Sepsis is a potentially life threatening condition triggered by an infection or an injury, which causes the body’s immune system to go into overdrive as it tries to be an infection.

It can reduce the blood supply to vital organs and without quick treatment can cause multiple organ failure.

Rhian was rushed to Ysbyty Gwynedd where she spent six days while doctors took her to the resuscitation area and gave her antibiotics and fluids, before having an operation the following morning to deal with the infection.

Under the Welsh Ambulance Service’s new clinical response model which was made permanent in February, a range of ambulance quality indicators have been created to measure the clinical outcomes being delivered for patients like Rhian.

They include the number and percentage of suspected sepsis patients who have had a documented NEWS score, which between October and December 2016 was 122 out of 127 (96.1%) patients across Wales.

Berwyn, who is now an advanced paramedic practitioner (APP) based at Aberconwy ambulance station, was later invited to be a keynote speaker on World Sepsis Day in Cardiff, to speak to bodies from different health boards about how the sepsis was managed, and how information was conveyed between the Welsh Ambulance Service and the hospital.

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He was also honoured with the Chief Executive’s award and Patient’s Choice award in recognition of his efforts and going the extra mile.

Nominated by Rhian for the latter, she said: “It is with thanks to Berwyn that I survived, and that my three children have a mother.

“He is the one person that deserves recognition and deserves a thank you from me, he is the one person I owe my life to, he is the one person I will always have in my heart, and he is the one person who deserves this award.”

But while admitting it’s nice to be recognised, Berwyn said: “It’s very important to realise that it’s always a team effort, it’s not just one person that helps people.

Berwyn Owen-Jones inside his vehicle (Image: North Wales Daily Post)

“In Rhian’s case for example, the call went through the out of hours system and nurse triage, before it was passed to the ambulance service, then it was dealt with by the controllers and the duty manager before even passing to us on the road.

“It then went from us in the RRV to another ambulance, so there’s a chain of events that happen to provide that level of care that Rhian was fortunate she had in good time.

“Although individuals can be singled out for a job they’ve done well, it’s important to remember I’m just one link in a much bigger chain.”

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Berwyn has been a paramedic for almost 10 years and has worked in Barmouth, Liverpool, Manchester, Anglesey and more recently, Aberconwy.

The 30-year-old newly-wed, who lives on Anglesey is currently one month into his new role as an APP as part of a pilot scheme.

He explained: “An AAP is a paramedic who has gone through higher education and has gained more training and few extra skills so that we can safely treat more patients in the community and reduce conveyance rates, and give patients the best treatment in their homes, rather than taking them to hospital to get the same treatment.

“At the moment, the pilot includes 10 APPs working at masters level and we’re all pushing forward to shape the future of advanced practice throughout Wales.

“It’s no secret that we’re under massive winter pressures at the moment, it’s quite common in newspapers that you see ambulances queuing up outside A&amp;E due to the pressures on both sides, pre-hospital and in hospital, so our initiative is to try to save those ambulances from being in the queue and sending them to people that need to be going to hospital.”

Berwyn Owen-Jones (Image: North Wales Daily Post)

Berwyn said it’s important that people think more carefully about calling for an ambulance.

“We are thriving to make sure that the right people get the right ambulances in time, and there will be times when people ring up thinking they want an ambulance but don’t really need one.

“We try to treat those people with alternative care pathways, if we can do that, we can start alleviating some of the pressures at the receiving hospitals.”

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Describing his love for the job, Berwyn said; “I can recall many incidents where you feel like you’ve made a real difference.

“You have to always be prepared for anything - even though we get a brief overview from the control, you can arrive to find the situation is so dynamic, things change drastically and the information you’ve been given is not necessarily what you’re faced with, but it’s all part of the job.